This A-Z encyclopedia provides an accessible and accurate resource for studying this fascinating period of history and subject. each of the 200+ entries provides an overview of the subject and a brief list of works for further reading. more...

This volume presents a historical review of the debates surrounding women's contributions and roles in science, with emphasis on women's access to education, training and professional careers. It examines the question posed throughout history: "are women capable of doing science?" more...

Compiled in honor of an outstanding historian of science, physicist and exceptional human being, Sam Schweber, this book assembles a broad spectrum of positions on the history of science by some of its leading representatives. It presents a comprehensive survey reflecting the strong influence Sam Schweber has exerted on the history of science. more...

A dazzling, irresistible collection of the ten most ground-breaking and beautiful experiments in scientific history. With the attention to detail of a historian and the story-telling ability of a novelist, New York Times science writer George Johnson celebrates these groundbreaking experiments and re-creates a time when the world seemed filled... more...

Brilliant scientific successes have helped shape our world, and are always celebrated. However, for every victory, there are no doubt numerous little-known blunders. Neuroscientist Simon LeVay brings together a collection of fascinating, yet shocking, stories of failure from recent scientific history in When Science Goes Wrong . From the fields... more...

In Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss, Brad Matsen brings to vivid life the famous deep-sea expeditions of Otis Barton and William Beebe. Beebe was a very well-connected and internationally acclaimed naturalist, with the power to generate media attention. Barton was an engineer and heir to a considerable fortune, who had long dreamed of making... more...

In this original, wide-ranging, and endlessly thought-provoking work of popular nonfiction, a leading science writer uncovers the pervasive presence of shadows in our world. For Plato, shadows were the symbol of our limitations. For Galileo, they knocked the Earth from the center of the cosmos. They are a source of fear and a symbol of ignorance,... more...

Aladdin?s Lamp is the fascinating story of how ancient Greek philosophy and science began in the sixth century B.C. and, during the next millennium, spread across the Greco-Roman world, producing the remarkable discoveries and theories of Thales, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, Galen, Ptolemy, and many others. John... more...

In this captivating and lucid book, novelist and science writer Alan Lightman chronicles twenty-four great discoveries of twentieth-century science--everything from the theory of relativity to mapping the structure of DNA.These discoveries radically changed our notions of the world and our place in it. Here are Einstein, Fleming, Bohr, McClintock,... more...